


Supplicium – Die Hinrichtung

by Darth_Cannizard



Category: Joyeux Noël | Merry Christmas (2005)
Genre: Horstebert, M/M, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23058862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darth_Cannizard/pseuds/Darth_Cannizard
Summary: "What are they going to do with us?" asks Karl and that is indeed a problem and a question to which the Frenchman has no answer.
Relationships: Lt Audebert/Lt Horstmayer (Joyeux Noël)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	Supplicium – Die Hinrichtung

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xsunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsunny/gifts).



> This is my version of the prompt “knitting” and it’s exactly as bloody and dramatic as I love it.
> 
> This story is not only written for Sunny, but also partly written by her, since several of her sentences were taken from our conversations and inserted here. You will know which ones, honey.

They are both wounded. Audebert has a graze on the arm that bleeds quite heavily, but is otherwise not endangering his life. Horstmayer, on the other hand, is wounded severely.  
  
They are in the middle of no man’s land. Audebert kneels on the frozen ground, holding Karl’s head in his lap.  
  
"Have you worn it at least once?" asks the German and a trickle of blood flows from his nose down his cheek.

"Your unspeakable pullover?" Audebert looks at him sadly "I have it on under my uniform, I've been wearing it all the time, you fool."  
  
"What are they going to do with us?" asks Karl and that is indeed a problem and a question to which the Frenchman has no answer. He fears the answer. And in order not to have to give it, he leans down and kisses his lover on the forehead.

After all their paths had gone in different directions after the Christmas Truce, it was obvious that they would never meet again. Their interconnected destinies, like the threads in a knitted pullover, would never cross again.

But fate had determined it differently. Audebert survived Verdun. Horstmayer came back victorious from the Eastern Front. Gordon and Palmer were pardoned because England was running out of soldiers.

And so they were assigned to new companies and sent back to the front. To face each other again.  
  
Only that now the feelings of the opponents have hardened. Too many deaths and too many injured, mutual hatred made a new Christmas Truce or any consideration for the enemy impossible.  
  
But Camille and Karl hadn't buried their love for each other.  
  
They found a way to write letters to each other and to express their love again and again.

And here they are, 1 year later. In the middle of no man's land. Shortly after a battle. Surrounded by the dead and injured.

And hope for a miracle.

Or for mercy.  
  
In the end it’s Gordon who comes up with the idea of taking both into custody, thereby protecting Horstmayer from the French and Audebert from the anger of the german enemy. After Karl’s wounds have been taken care of, the Red Cross takes him away. There is an english hospital nearby.  
  
Over the next 2 years, Audebert believes that _his German_ is spending his days somewhere in a prisoner of war camp far from war and in relative security. He doesn't know that the ambulance was intercepted by the Germans. He doesn't know that his beloved _Oberleutnant_ is fighting on the front again.

***

_He dares to ask for mercy_ , thinks Major Hollinghurst with a mixture of absolute anger and bitterness. _He hopes for a generous and merciful enemy. How dares he to beg for pardon and to spare his men’s lives ?!_  
  
_They have lost so many and this german swine dares to appeal to their reason. They should fight to the last drop of blood, as is expected of them as soldiers and not surrender. And specifically not sacrifice himself as an officer for his men._ The Englishman doesn't want to apply that much nobleness to the cursed _Boches_ in his thoughts, and certainly not in reality.

*

They tie him up, let him kneel down to watch the bloodbath on his men and then they rope him to a tree and finish him off with two bayonets through his wrists. They leave him to slowly and painfully bleed to his death. Bleeding to death is indeed a slow and cruel fate. Between being forced to kneel down and being tied to the tree, there is more cruelty of another kind, but his subconscious supresses the memory of what was done to him. Supresses the meaning of the blood between his thighs.  
  
He pleaded to kill him instead of his men. He surrendered to save them. But the english enemy didn’t know the emotion of mercy. War turns even the noblest man into a monster.

*

“You should see that, mon lieutenant. We don't know who that is, but they literally crucified him."  
  
Anquier looks through the binoculars again. "And he's still alive." Audebert nods. They leave the trench and approach the soldier, who is tied to one of the last remaining trees. Or rather, his hands are angled over him being fixed to the tree with 2 bayonets that go through his wrist. He is trembling, clearly in shock. Bloodied. Barely conscious. Audebert approaches him and draws his pistol. Once again he has to admonish the _coup de grace_ to free another unfortunate soul from suffering. But this will not happen this time. He knows the man who has been tormented in such a cruel way and in mockery of religious values.

It’s Horstmayer.  
  
Crucified to a tree by english bayonets.

He looks like Saint Sebastian.  
  
"Should I do it?" his first officer Anquier asks him when he realizes that Audebert is hesitant and his face has turned pale.  
  
"I know this man," Audebert says very quietly. "Get the medic and help me free him."  
  
"Mon lieutenant, he is seriously injured, it would be better for him ..."  
  
"Do what I say!" Audebert yells at him and his voice breaks at the end of the sentence. He swallows hard.

The wounded is murmuring something. Audebert puts his ear close to Horstmayer’s mouth to hear what he is saying. “I tried to save them...they made me watch while they shot and bayoneted them...the wounded, the weak, the defenceless, _die Unbewaffneten_...one by one...so much blood...please kill me instead of them...” He seems to plead with the english commander, mixing in phrases in German and then suddenly changing to French, as if he could indeed feel the closeness of the one who loves him and whom he loves.

*

The Christmas Truce is now three years ago. Camille hadn't believed or hoped for that he would ever see the man again who caught his heart. In his worst nightmares, he could never have imagined how they would see each other again.  
  
The medic arrived.  
  
"I don't have that much bandages," he murmurs as he takes a closer look at the extent of the injuries. Audebert knows what to do. The material from which the pullover is made is very soft. He hurries to take off his beloved piece of cloth.

"Help me free him. Very careful, mon lieutenant. You have to be quick, when I remove the blades, you have to try to put the bandage on immediately. Oh and press closer to him, otherwise he will fall over when his hands are free."  
  
Audebert trembles.  
  
"Press firmly, sir. And now the second hand. Damn it, he's about to fall down."  
  
But Camille catches him and lifts him up. The medic bandaged his arms. Horstmayer is so very thin. Emaciated. His face is deathly pale, feverish and he breathes very shallowly.

*

"He ..." the medic struggles for words, "he was violated, mon lieutenant" he finally mumbles without looking Audebert in the eye. "Multiple times and quite brutal."  
  
They are in Audebert’s chambers. Horstmayer is lying on the bed bandaged and sedated.  
  
"He is an officer," says Audebert after a moment of silence, wrestling with tears, "have an ambulance brought and he should be taken to the nearest hospital behind the front."  
  
"He may be an officer, but he is still the enemy and prisoners of war are not given preferential treatment this way, mon lieutenant."

Unless.

It is one of the wonderful coincidences that of all people it’s Gordon’s company taking the position next to the french trench the next day. Father Palmer is asked to hold the ceremony. With Ponchel and Gordon as witnesses. As the husband of a french officer, nothing stands in the way of transferring the seriously injured Horstmayer to the next hospital. But the ceremony is making huge political waves and has unforeseen consequences.

*

In the end the verdict is to temper justice with mercy, so the French Parliament decides. And that was also the decision of the masses who previously took the streets in protest to demonstrate for their incarcerated lieutenant. And to demostrate for the enemy who means everything to him and for whom he was ready to die.


End file.
